Maeve Binchy - Evening Class

'And how did she seem?' Aidan asked.

'Now, Aidan, don't start taking attitudes. We've always agreed that it's much wiser that Grania should stay with Fiona in town instead of getting a dodgy lift home.'

He nodded. None of them thought for a moment that Grania was staying with Fiona.

'No problems, then?' Tony asked.

'No, I told you… they treat me as a grown up.'

'And so do I in a different way.' He reached out for her as she sat on the edge of the bed.

'No, Tony, I can't possibly. We have to go to work. I have to get to the bank, you have to go to Mountainview.'

He was pleased that she remembered the name of the place he worked. 'No, they won't mind, they're very lax there, let the teachers do what they like most of the time.'

She laughed at him. 'No that's not true, not even a little bit true. Get up and have a shower, I'll put on some coffee. Where's the machine?'

'It's only instant, I'm afraid.'

'Oh, that's not classy enough for me at all, I'm afraid, Mr. O'Brien,' she said, shaking her head at him in mock disapproval. 'Things will have to improve round here if I am to visit again.'

'I was hoping you'd pay a visit this evening,' he said.

Their eyes met. There was no guile.

'Yes, if you have real coffee,' she said.

'Consider it done,' he said.

Grania had toast, Tony had two cigarettes.

'You really should cut down on those,' she said. 'I could hear your wheeze all night.'

'That was passion,' he said.

'No, it was cigarettes.' She was firm.

Perhaps, perhaps for this lively bright young woman he might, he just might, be able to cut them out. It was bad enough to be so much older than her, he didn't want to be so much wheezier as well. 'I might change, you know,' he said seriously. 'There are going to be a lot of changes in my life at work for one thing, but more important, now that I've met you I think I might have the strength to cut out a lot of the rubbishy bits.'

'Believe me, I'll help you,' Grania said, reaching for his hand across the table. 'And you must help me too. Help me to keep my mind alert and busy. I've stopped reading since I left school. I want to read again.'

'I think we should both take the day off to cement this promise,' he said, only half joking.

'Hey, you won't even be thinking about suggesting that next term,' she laughed.

'Why next term?' How could she have known of his promotion? Nobody knew except the Board who had offered him the job. It was to be kept totally secret until it was announced.

She had not meant to tell him yet about her father being on the staff, but somehow with all they had shared it seemed pointless to keep it secret any longer. It would have to come out some time, and anyway she was so proud of Dad's new post. 'Well, you'll want to keep well in with my father, he's going to be the Principal of Mountainview.'

'Your father's going to be what ?

'Principal. It's a secret until next week but I think everyone expected it.'

'What's your father's name?'

'Dunne, like mine. He's the Latin teacher, Aidan Dunne. Remember, I asked you did you know him the first time we met?'

'You didn't say he was your father.'

'No, well it was a crowded place and I didn't want to be making myself sound too babyish. And later it didn't matter.'

'Oh my God,' said Tony O'Brien. He didn't look at all pleased.

Grania bit her lip and regretted that she had ever mentioned it. 'Please don't say to him that you know, please.'

'He told you this? That he was going to be Principal?' Tony

O'Brien's face was hardly able to register the shock. 'When? When did he tell you this? Was it a long time ago?'

'He's been talking about it for ages, but he told us last night.'

'Last night? No, you must be mistaken, you must have misunderstood.'

'Of course I didn't misunderstand, we were just talking about it before I came out to meet you.'

'And did you tell him that you were meeting me?' He looked almost wild.

'No. Tony, what is it?'

He held both her hands in his and spoke very slowly and carefully. 'This is the most important thing I have ever said in my whole life. In my whole long life, Grania. You must never, never tell your father what you told me now. Never.'

She laughed nervously and tried to draw her hands away. 'Oh come on, you're behaving like someone in a melodrama.'

'It's a bit like that, honestly.'

'I'm never to tell my father I met you, know you, like you… What kind of relationship is that?' Her eyes blazed at him across the breakfast table.

'No, of course we'll tell him. But later, not a lot later, but there's something else I have to tell him first.'

'Tell me,' she asked.

'I can't. If there's any dignity to be left anywhere in this whole world it depends on your trusting me this minute and believing I want the best, the very, very best for you.'

'How can I believe anything if you won't tell me what all the mystery is about?'

'It's about faith and trust.'

'It's about keeping me in the dark, that's what it is, and I hate it.'

'What have you to lose by trusting me, Grania? Listen, two weeks ago we hadn't even met, now we think we love each other. Can't you give it just a day or two till I sort something out?' He was standing up and putting on his jacket. For a man who had said Mountainview College was a lax place where it didn't matter what time you rolled in, Tony O'Brien seemed in a very great hurry.

Aidan Dunne was in the staffroom. He looked slightly excited, feverish even. His eyes were unnaturally bright. Was it possible that he could be suffering from some kind of delusions? Or did he suspect that his beloved daughter had been seduced by a man as old as himself but ten times as unreliable?

'Aidan, I want to talk to you very very urgently,' Tony O'Brien hissed in an undertone.

'After school hours possibly, Tony…'

'This very minute. Come on, we'll go to the library.'

'Tony, the bell will go in five minutes.'

'To hell with the bell.' Tony half pulled, half dragged him out of the staffroom.

In the library two studious girls from Sixth Year looked up, startled.

'Out,' Tony O'Brien said in a voice that wasn't going to be argued with.

One of them tried to argue. 'But we're studying here, we were looking up…'

'Did you hear me?'

This time she got the message and they were gone. •

'That's no way to treat children, we're meant to encourage them, lead them into the library, for heaven's sake, not throw them out of it like some bouncer in these night clubs you go to. What example is that for them to follow?'

'We're not here to be some example to them, we're here to teach them. To put some information into their heads. It's as simple as that.'

Aidan looked at him aghast, and then he spoke. 'I'll thank you not to give me the benefit of your half-baked hungover philosophies at this time in the morning, or any time. Let me back to my classes this minute.'

'Aidan.' Tony O'Brien's voice had changed. 'Aidan, listen to me. I'm going to be the Principal. They were going to announce it next week, but I think it's better if I make them do it today.'

'What, what… Why do you want to do that?' Aidan felt he had a blow in the stomach. This was too soon, he wasn't ready for it. There was no proof. Nothing was fixed yet.

'So that all this nonsense in your head can be knocked out if it, so that you don't go round believing that it's you who's getting the job… upsetting yourself, upsetting other people… that's why.'

Aidan looked at Tony O'Brien. 'Why are you doing this to me, Tony, why? Suppose they do give you the job, is your first response to drag me in here and start rubbing my nose in it, the fact that you… you who don't give a tuppenny damn about Mountainview are going to get the job? Have you no dignity at all? Can't you even wait until the Board offer you the job before you start gloating? Are you so bloody confident, so eager…?'